Les impôts et
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Taxes for the Common Good:
A Public Justice Primer on Taxation (PDF -
2.6MB, 20 pages)http://www.cpj.ca/sites/default/files/docs/files/Taxes-for-the-Common-Good-FINAL.pdf
May 2015
"Taxes for the Common Good" is a series of fact sheets highlighting
the positive role taxes play in a democratic society and summarizing up-to-date
information on the costs and opportunities afforded by various federal tax
policy options.
Contents:
Introduction: Taxes for the Common Good
Fact Sheet #1: The High Cost of Low Taxes
Fact Sheet #2: Public Services: Good Value for Money
Fact Sheet #3: How Progressive is Canadas Tax System?
Fact Sheet #4: Lower Corporate Taxes: Who Benefits?
Fact Sheet #5: The Rise of Tax Expenditures
Fact Sheet #6: Carbon Taxes

Source:
Citizens for Public Justicehttp://www.cpj.ca/
Citizens for Public Justice is a national organization committed to seek human
flourishing and the integrity of creation as our faithful response to Gods
call for love and justice.

Income splitting vs. childcarehttp://cupe.ca/child-care/income-splitting-vs-childcare
April 9, 2014
Study after study shows that public spending on child care should be a top
priority. The wide-spread and long-lasting economic, social, and health benefits
for children, families, and society far outweigh the costs. However, Canada
is last among its peer countries on public spending on child care. Despite
all the evidence, the federal Conservative government persists on ineffective
high-cost proposals such as income-splitting and the Universal Child Care
Benefit.

In 2011, the Harper conservatives made an election pledge that they would
allow couples with children under 18 to split up to $50,000 of their income
each year for tax purposes. This would reduce what the household would pay
in taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) study, Income Splitting
in Canada: Inequality by Design (see the link below), showed Canadians
that the Conservative plan to extend income splitting to families with children
under 18 would provide no benefit to 86 per cent of all families. Meanwhile
the cost to the federal government would be $3 billion and the cost to the
provinces would be $1.9 billion for a total loss of revenue in 2015 alone
of nearly $5 billion.

Source:
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)*http://cupe.ca/
---* I administer the mailing list and distribute
the weekly newsletter using software on the webmail server of the Canadian
Union of Public Employees (CUPE).http://www.cupe.ca/
Thanks, CUPE!.

Hennessys Index is a monthly listing of
numbers, written by the CCPA's Trish Hennessy, about Canada and its place
in the world.
For other months, visit: http://policyalternatives.ca/index

---

70 years
The last time Canadian federal tax revenues have been this low (as a share
of the economy).

29%
Top federal personal income tax rate for anyone earning from $136,270 to you
name it.

$2.5 billion
Estimated additional revenue that could accrue to federal fiscal coffers in
2015 if the federal government adopted a new tax bracket of 35 per cent for
incomes over $250,000.

$6 billion
Eventual annual loss in revenue the Alternative Federal Budget estimates could
result from the federal governments 2011proposal to double the limit
for Canadians who can afford to shelter money into the Tax Free Savings Account,
which now has an annual limit of $5,500 a year.

29.1%
Canadas federal corporate income tax rate in 2000. By 2011 that tax
rate had been cut in half, to 15%.

Income splitting is a tax gift to Canadas
rich: studyhttp://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/income-splitting-tax-gift-canada%E2%80%99s-rich-study
News Release
January 28, 2014
OTTAWAEighty-six percent of Canadian families would gain no benefit
from the proposed Conservative income splitting plan, says a new study released
today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The study, by
CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald, examines the cost and the distributional
impact of three income splitting scenarios: pension income splitting; income
splitting for families with children under 18, as the Conservatives have pledged;
and income splitting for all families. The study finds that the impact of
income splitting in all scenarios is very unequal and the lost revenue for
Canadian governments would be substantial.

Table of contents:
* Executive Summary
* Introduction
* Income Splitting: A Brief Primer
* The Cost of Income Splitting
* Pension Income Splitting
* Income Splitting for Families with Children
* Taxable Income Splitting for All Families + Pension Income Splitting
* Conclusion
* Appendix : Methodology and Assumptions

This study finds that, in 2015, Canadas
federal government will give up an estimated $1.2 billion in lost revenue
due to pension income splitting and the provinces will lose another $500 million
in revenue for mimicking this tax change  for a total revenue loss of
$1.7 billion.

When good advice goes badhttp://imagineacity.ca/2013/11/22/when-good-advice-goes-bad/
November 22, 2013
By Adrienne Clarke
This week, Imagine a City is joined by guest blogger John Stapleton, founder
of Open Policy Ontario [ http://openpolicyontario.com/
] and a fellow with the Metcalf Foundation [ http://metcalffoundation.com/
] . He has some much-needed financial advice for low-income earners, just
in time for Financial Literacy Month. Here, he provides a rundown of what
low-income earners really need to know, and how the financial-services industry
can serve them better.
---Excerpt:
When assisting low-income people, for instance, many advisors will tell them
to max out their RRSPs, forget about Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), and
wait until 65 or later to sign up for Canada Pension. Theyll also be
advised to look closely at their taxes to capitalize on tax credits.This is
the same advice given (rightfully) to middle- and high-income earners, but
for people making ends meet on lower incomes, its exactly wrong.

Whats wrong with income-splitting?
Nothing  if youre wealthyhttp://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/10/09/whats-wrong-with-income-splitting-nothing-if-youre-wealthy/
By Andrew Jackson and Jonathan Sas
October 9, 2013
During the last federal election, Stephen Harper promised that his Conservative
government would introduce a new way to tax families with children after balancing
the federal budget. We are likely to hear a lot more
about the merits of Harpers income-splitting proposal before
the 2015 election. The Conservatives continue to slash
spending and erode public services precisely in order to create the fiscal
room for this promised tax cut. Never mind that Mr. Harpers aggressive
agenda of tax cuts has already helped turn a $16 billion surplus in 2006 into
annual deficits. The Conservatives will frame their
income-splitting plan as needed tax relief for middle-class Canadian families.
What Harper wont tell us, however, is that it isnt designed to
benefit the families most in need. In fact, it promises to exacerbate 
not reduce  existing income and gender inequality.

Source:
iPolitics [ http://www.ipolitics.ca/
] is independent, non-partisan and committed to providing timely, relevant,
insightful content to those whose professional or personal interests require
that they stay on top of political developments in Ottawa and the provinces.

Canadians consumer tax burden is
not as onerous as it soundshttp://goo.gl/i690b
By Andrew Jackson
May 1, 2013
Hidden deep in the bowels of the Fraser Institute [ http://www.fraserinstitute.org/
] in Vancouver, there is an elaborate contraption known as the Canadian
Tax Simulator. It generates the data for the Canadian Consumer
Tax Index" [ http://goo.gl/2C9GH
], an annual report that supposedly tells us how much tax is paid by the average
Canadian family.

The latest report [ http://goo.gl/fFby6
] was released just before the income tax filing deadline of April 30. Taxes,
we were told, are shockingly high as a proportion of family income, and now
loom larger than spending on the necessities of life.

The Fraser Institutes key finding was
that in 2012, 42.7 per cent of an average familys income went
towards taxes (including all types of taxes imposed by federal, provincial
and local governments).

The methodology used to reach that conclusion
is somewhat opaque, but the reported results are highly questionable.

[ Author Andrew Jackson is the Packer Professor
of Social Justice at York University and Senior Policy Adviser to the Broadbent
Institute. ]

Big Ideas: Alex Himelfarb on the consequences
of tax cuts (video, 53:45)http://ww3.tvo.org/video/167578/alex-himelfarb-consequences-tax-cuts
November 11, 2011
How Did Taxes Become a Bad Word? The Former Clerk of the Privy Council, Alex
Himelfarb, discusses why we should be investing more, not less, in our future.
While today's political leaders exalt the benefits of increased tax-cutting,
Himelfarb argues that further tax cuts will come with serious consequences,
including cuts to services and deeper inequality. According to Himelfarb,
what we need is nothing less than a re-think about what our future is worth.
His lecture was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada.Source:
TVOntariohttp://ww3.tvo.org/

Canadas tax system needs fairness
overhaul: studyhttp://goo.gl/jEGmq
February 13, 2013
OTTAWACanadas tax system is in dire need of reform, says a new
study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. According
to the study, by CCPA economists Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova, ad-hoc tax changes
over the last two decades have seriously weakened the redistributive role
of Canadas tax system at a time when market inequalities call for more,
not less, redistribution.

Complete study:

Fairness by Design:
A Framework for Tax Reform in Canada (PDF -
939K, 44 pages)http://goo.gl/rh1zHBy Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova
February 13, 2013
This study finds that ad-hoc tax changes over the last two decades have seriously
weakened the redistributive role of Canadas tax system at a time when
market inequalities call for more, not less, redistribution. The authors present
a framework for a progressive tax reform strategy and recommend the establishment
of a Fair Tax Commission to examine how federal taxes and transfers work together
as a system and make recommendations for changes.

Tax Fairness News : Winter 2013
(PDF - 380K,4 pages)
http://www.taxfairness.ca/sites/taxfairness.ca/files/pdf/newsletter_feb_2013.pdf
February 8, 2013
Canadians for Tax Fairness is gearing up to make some real progress on tax
fairness in 2013. In addition to continuing our Tackle Tax Havens campaign,
we will be rolling out a new campaigns on closing tax loopholes as well as
supporting provincial tax fairness campaigns. We will keep you informed and
hope we can count on your continuing support.
There is a lot happening on tax fairness across the country and around the
world.Contents (including links to further info):
* New Brunswick * Newfoundland and Labrador * Nova Scotia * Alberta * British
Columbia * Ontario
* The Great Revenue Robbery (book release, April 2013)
* And Speaking of Fairness ..
* The Robin Hood Tax
* What did corporate tax cuts deliver?
* Church Group (KAIROS) Promotes Tax Reform for Equity and Sustainability
* Parliament Turns Attention to Tax Havens
* Lets Keep Working!

Tax Fairness E-newsletter Archivehttp://www.taxfairness.ca/page/resources
- includes links to ten earlier newsletters going back to May 2011
- also includes links to (1) info about must-read books, (2) articles, videos
and links of interest, and (3) other tax fairness organizations and campaigns

Source:
Canadians for Tax Fairnesshttp://www.taxfairness.ca/
The mission of Canadians for Tax Fairness is to build a national campaign
to promote fair taxation. We support the development and implementation of
a tax system, based on ability to pay, to fund the comprehensive, high-quality
network of public services and programs required to meet our social, economic
and environmental needs in the 21st century.

Canadas Mean Test: Myths behind
neo-con madnesshttp://www.behindthenumbers.ca/2012/06/29/canadas-mean-test-myths-behind-neo-con-madness/June 29, 2012
By Erika Shaker
(...) If youve expressed concern with some (all?) of
the following: global warming, Indigenous rights, tuition fee increases, cuts
to health care, OAS, EI, the arts, the CBC, and a number of anti-poverty initiatives
youve probably heard this argument:No one handed me anything. I worked hard and
did well at (public) school. Only missed classes when I was sick and
had to go to a (publicly funded) doctor. When I got my first job (right
out of university), I was there (on public transportation) every
day. And somehow I managed (having little or no student debt) to buy
a car and a house and pay my bills. You dont hear me complaining (except
about paying the taxes that provide those social programs that I never, ever
access); not like those whiny kids in the streets who wouldnt know
hard work if it served them one of those triple shot mocha-latte-chinos theyre
so fond of. Heh heh.

That whole myth of the self-made man is appealing
in a plaid shirt/roaring fire/"its Miller time!"kind of way
(if youre, you know, into that sort of thing), but given what we know
about the importance of social and physical infrastructure to our collective
well-being, its also a teensy bit naïve...

Source:Behind the Numbershttp://www.behindthenumbers.ca/
CCPA's national blog, Behind the Numbers, delivers timely, progressive
commentary on issues that affect Canadians, including the economy, poverty,
inequality, climate change, budgets, taxes, public services, employment and
much more.

Tax Fairness E-newsletter Archivehttp://www.taxfairness.ca/page/resources
- includes links to seven earlier newsletters going back to May 2011
- also includes links to (1) info about must-read books, (2) articles, videos
and links of interest, and (3) other tax fairness organizations and campaigns

Source:Canadians for Tax Fairnesshttp://www.taxfairness.ca/
Canadians for Tax Fairness promotes a progressive tax system, based on ability
to pay, to fund the public services and programs required to meet our social,
economic and environmental needs.

Canadians willing to pay higher taxes
for equalityhttp://goo.gl/4cOlK
April 10, 2012
According to results of the first poll commissioned by a new left-leaning
think tank, the majority of Canadians are concerned by the growing gulf between
haves and have-nots, and they're willing to pay for change. The Environics
Research survey commissioned by former NDP leader Ed Broadbent's eponymous
institute was released Tuesday.
Source:CTVNews.ca

Related link:

Broadbent Institute http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/
The Broadbent Institute is an idea realized in 2011 after years of percolating
in the mind of Canadian politician and advocate, Ed Broadbent. Endorsed by
Jack Layton and supporters from right across Canada, the Broadbent Institute
is inspired by a common vision of free, equal, and compassionate citizenship
in Canada  the very heart of what social democracy is about.

In this issue:
The Fair Tax Summit
The Federal Budget: There are alternatives to cutbacks
Take Action!
Africa's Odious Debts
The macroeconomic causes of growing inequality
Poll finds 60% support raising taxes on the rich
Successful campaign to save libraries from tax cuts video
Can you guess which province has the lowest corporate taxes?
Study says Canada has one of the lowerst corporate tax rate.
Who said, "I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes"?
Inequality is bad for the economy
Doctors for Fair Taxation

Source:
Canadians for Tax Fairnesshttp://www.taxfairness.ca/
The mission of Canadians for Tax Fairness is to build a national campaign
to promote fair taxation. We support the development and implementation of
a tax system, based on ability to pay, to fund the comprehensive, high-quality
network of public services and programs required to meet our social, economic
and environmental needs in the 21st century.

Canada's
Quiet Bargain:
The benefits of public spending (PDF - 1.3MB, 40 pages)
April 2009
By Hugh Mackenzie and Richard Shillington
This study adds a dimension that has been missing to the public debate over
taxes and public spending in Canada. It weighs the benefits of public services
provided by federal, provincial, and municipal governments against the benefits
of recent tax cuts.

100 things not to do if you hate taxes
or, why saying taxes are not worth what we get for them is just plain stupid
(PDF - 348K, 7 pages)http://goo.gl/SH5v6March 2012
The so-called free market cant and wont take care of everything;
the public sector can and must play a constructive and compassionate role
in our society and economy. Were going to keep working hard to make
that truth as obvious to all Canadians as the sun rising in the east. We wont
stop until we win the battle of ideas and values when it comes to taxes. In
the meantime, we offer this handy list of 100 things not to do for all those
people who hate paying taxes and the public sector.
1. Do not visit your doctors office or local hospital.
2. Do not send your kids to public schools.
3. Do not support the Canadian Forces.
4. Do not expect the Canadian Coast Guard to save you from an emergency at
sea.
5. Do not expect the government to intervene and boost the economy during
a recession.
(...)
After reading this list, we hope people have a better appreciation that there
is a very real connection between their taxes and the services and programs
they use.

Please click the source link below and join
the campaign.
There are many ways you can get involved, so join the conversation and help
set the record straight.

Tax
Freedom Day - from Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia"Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the
year in which a nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to
fund its annual tax burden. It is annually calculated in the United States
by the Tax Foundationa Washington, D.C.-based tax research organization.
Every dollar that is officially considered income by the U.S. government is
counted, and every payment to the U.S. government that is officially considered
a tax is counted. Taxes at all levels of governmentlocal, state and
federalare included."

---

Tax Freedom Day is June 11, one day later
than last year as Canadians work longer to pay taxeshttp://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/news/display.aspx?id=18389June 11, 2012
VANCOUVER, BCMonday, June 11 is Tax Freedom Day, the day Canadians have
finally earned enough money to pay all the taxes they owe to all levels of
government for the year, according to the Fraser Institutes annual calculations.
Tax Freedom Day arrives one day later than in 2011,
when it fell on June 10. "This underscores a worrying
trend across the country of governments increasing taxes," said Charles
Lammam, Fraser Institute associate director of tax and budget policy and co-author
of Canadians Celebrate Tax Freedom Day [ http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/display.aspx?id=18388
] on June 11, 2012.

Tax Benefits Day (June 12) from Canada
Without Poverty (CWP, formerly the National Anti-Poverty Organization)
NOTE by Gilles : Last year at this time, Rob Rainer (Executive Director of
CWP) announced his interest in launching a new "Day" --- Tax
Benefits Day, to counter the Fraser Institute's narrow view of taxation
by listing some of the benefits that we derive as Canadians from our federal,
provincial and municipal taxes. You will have noticed, no doubt, that there
is no link in this paragraph for Tax Benefits Day OR for the home page of
the CWP website. That's because when I tried to access the site (June 13th
at 1pm), my malware protection software threw up a !!Malware!! warning screen.
<ARGH.>
Your best bet to access the CWP website safely is by doing a search
using the Google search engine for "canada without poverty". If
there's still a malware problem with the site, the search result page will
include the malware danger warning directly next to the URL in Google Chrome,
Firefox and Internet Explorer. If that's the case, wait a few days before
trying again...

---

Tax Freedom Day is nothing to celebrate[dead link]
Don't like paying for government? Just try living without itBy Craig McInnes
June 10, 2011
(...)What offends me ... and what I believe is dangerous to our way of life,
is the underlying message of Tax Freedom Day, which is that the taxes we pay
to support governments and the services they provide somehow work against
us rather than enabling the quality of life we enjoy.
(...)
The insidious aspect of looking at taxes in the absence of the benefits they
pay for is that we lose sight of why we pay taxes. After that, pressure intensifies
for politicians to cut taxes to the point where the consequences are ignored.
That has already happened in the U.S., where opposition to taxes is bankrupting
states and undermining the value of the once mighty American dollar. There
are plenty of countries in the world with lower taxes than Canada's. There
are few with a higher quality of life.
Source:Vancouver Sun

From the
Fraser Institute:

Tax
Freedom Day underscores need for tax relief
By Charles Lammam and Niels Veldhuis
June 6, 2011
Happy Tax Freedom Day! When Canadians return to work on Monday (June
6), they will finally be working for themselves. In other words, if
we had to pay all our taxes up front, we would have to pay each and
every dollar we earned from January 1 to June 5 to various levels of
government.
Source:Fraser Institute
Motto: "A free and prosperous world through choice, markets and
responsibility"

---

Counterpoint from
Canada Without Poverty:

Happy
Tax Benefits Day 2011!Jun 7, 2011
By Rob Rainer
Its June 7 and, in reply to the Fraser Institutes announcement
of yesterday being Tax Freedom Day 2011 in Canada, happy Tax Benefits
Day 2011! A day to remind ourselves that, far from being bad
 as even Prime Minister Harper is on record as believing 
taxes and our willingness to pay them make possible our democratic institutions
and the many public goods and services that Canadians value [including]
an education, pensions, police and fire protection, national security,
roads, highways, bridges, canals, libraries, museums, parks, sewer systems,
garbage pickup, snow removal, water purification, food inspection, disease
control, and so on.

Related links:

Tax Freedom Day is nothing to celebrate[dead link]
Don't like paying for government? Just try living without itBy Craig McInnes
June 10, 2011
(...)What offends me ... and what I believe is dangerous to our way
of life, is the underlying message of Tax Freedom Day, which is that
the taxes we pay to support governments and the services they provide
somehow work against us rather than enabling the quality of life we
enjoy.
(...)
The insidious aspect of looking at taxes in the absence of the benefits
they pay for is that we lose sight of why we pay taxes. After that,
pressure intensifies for politicians to cut taxes to the point where
the consequences are ignored. That has already happened in the U.S.,
where opposition to taxes is bankrupting states and undermining the
value of the once mighty American dollar. There are plenty of countries
in the world with lower taxes than Canada's. There are few with a higher
quality of life.
Source:Vancouver Sun

Rob Rainer, Executive Director of Canada
Without Poverty, offers some insights from The Trouble With Billionaires,
a 2010 book by journalist Linda McQuaig and taxation expert Neil Brooks.
In particular, he endorses what he calls the most important of the recommendations
of McQuaig and Brooks --- to strive to bring about a change in
social attitudes toward taxation and its essential role in a democracy.

Hence the inauguration of Tax Benefits
Day  to fall on the day immediately after the Fraser Institutes
Tax Freedom Day, to counter the misguided view that taxes are bad.
Canada Without Poverty welcomes enquiries from organizations that would
like to work with us to organize Tax Benefits Day 2012 and beyond.

Source:Canada Without Poverty
Canada Without Poverty works to address the structural causes of poverty,
such as public policies that advance or constrain the social and economic
development of individuals, families and communities.

------------------------

In 2010:Canadians
celebrate Tax Freedom Day (PDF - 1.2MB, 3 pages)
on June 5 in 2010.
In 2010, Canadians celebrate Tax Freedom Day on June 5. That means that
Canadians started working for themselves on June 5. That is, Canadians
worked until June 4 to pay the total tax bill imposed on them by all
levels of government. From June 5 to the end of the year, taxpayers
can keep all the income they earn

Source:The Fraser Institute
"A free and prosperous world through choice, markets and responsibility"

---

Reality check:

Tax
Freedom Day: A Cause for Celebration or Consternation?Prepared
by:Sheena StarkyEconomics Division18 September 2006"(...)
While the idea of Tax Freedom Day is intuitively appealing and media-friendly,
the concept does not enjoy unanimous support in Canada or in other countries where
similar reports on Tax Freedom Day exist. Specific criticisms of the Tax Freedom
Day indicator in Canada centre on methodology and tend to be related to three
definitions:
* average Canadian family;
* income; and *
taxes.Critics such as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives dispute
The Fraser Institutes choice of methodology, arguing that it systematically
exaggerates the tax burden of average Canadians by overestimating taxes paid and/or
by underestimating taxpayers ability to pay their taxes.Source:Parliament
of Canada website

Taxes
and human purposeDecember 9, 2005By Neil Brooks"(...)
In support of their vision of the future, business interests and right-wing political
parties keep warning us about the terrible legacy we are leaving our children
in the form of a national debt and a bloated public sector. In fact, the much
worse legacy we are in danger of leaving our children if we decrease taxes and
continue to diminish the role of government in our collective lives is a fractured
and divided society, without a sense of itself or its collective responsibility,
and in which the economic elite is ever more able to defend itself politically.
This would be a truly unjust and truly irresponsible legacy to leave our children."

Obama Goes on Offensive Over
Taxes on Wealthyhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/us/politics/obama-to-make-case-for-buffett-rule.html
By Jackie Calmes
April 10, 2012
BOCA RATON, Fla.  All but certain now that his Republican
opponent will be Mitt Romney, President Obama has made his proposed
Buffett Rule minimum tax for the wealthiest Americans
like Mr. Romney a centerpiece of his re-election campaign, defying
the political risk of being seen as a tax-and-spender by wary voters.
With a rousing speech on Tuesday to a receptive university audience
of about 5,000 in this battleground state, Mr. Obama defined the
coming contest as a clash of philosophies: His argument that tax
fairness and the common good demand the richest Americans pay at
least as much as middle-income taxpayers do, contrasted with Republicans
opposition to any tax increases as job killers and class warfare,
even at the cost of deep cuts in domestic programs.

---

Mr. Obama and the Buffett
Rulehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/opinion/mr-obama-and-the-buffett-rule.html
Editorial
April 10, 2012
President Obama accomplished two things when he made the case on
Tuesday for the so-called Buffett Rule, which would require millionaires
to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. He persuasively
argued that it would be a step toward fairness in a tax code tilted
in favor of the wealthiest Americans. Not incidentally, it allowed
him to take an implicit shot at his virtually certain opponent,
Mitt Romney, both personally and politically.
(...) The Buffett Rule, which would raise an estimated
$50 billion over 10 years, would not make an appreciable dent in
the deficit or provide a lot more for essential programs. By comparison,
letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire for taxpayers making more than
$250,000 a year, as the president has also called for, would raise
$800 billion over 10 years. Mr. Obama must
ensure that the Buffett Rule does not become a substitute for ending
those tax cuts

America
Celebrates Tax Freedom Day 2011Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 12 this year, the 102nd
day of 2011. That means Americans will work well over three months
of the year, from January 1 to April 12, before they have earned
enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal,
state and local levels. Tax Freedom Day arrives three day later
in 2011 than it did in 2010, but nearly two weeks earlier than in
2007. This shift toward a lower tax burden since 2007 has been driven
by three factors:
 The Great Recession has reduced tax collec­tions even
faster than it has reduced income.
 President Obama and the Congress, after a long debate, extended
the Bush-era tax cuts for two additional years.
 As part of the extension agreement, the Making Work Pay tax
credit was replaced with the 2 percent reduction in the payroll
tax.
Despite these tax reductions, Americans will pay more in taxes in
2011 than they will spend on groceries, clothing and shelter combined.

Source:The Tax Foundation
The mission of the Tax Foundation is to educate taxpayers about
sound tax policy and the size of the tax burden borne by Americans
at all levels of government.

"The Tax Foundation's 'Tax Freedom Day' report
is plagued by two major problems. First, its estimates of state
and local tax burdens suffer from a number of serious methodological
flaws. Second, over the years, many journalists and policymakers
have misinterpreted the Tax Foundation's report as reflecting the
tax burdens faced by typical middle-income workers.

"In fact, the Tax Foundation's calculation
of the 'average' tax burden merely measures tax revenues as a share
of the economy; it is similar to estimates of total revenues as
a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In a progressive tax system
like that of the United States, only upper-income households pay
tax at rates equal to or exceeding the overall level of revenues
as a share of the economy. Authoritative figures from the non-partisan
Congressional Budget Office show that middle- and even upper-middle-income
Americans pay a considerably smaller share of their income in taxes
than the Tax Foundation report implies. The CBO data suggest that
80 percent of U.S. households pay federal tax at a lower rate than
the Tax Foundation's estimated 'average' federal tax burden."

TAX FOUNDATION FIGURES DO NOT REPRESENT TYPICAL
HOUSEHOLDS TAX BURDENS:
Figures May Mislead Policymakers, Journalists, and the PublicApril 23, 2008By Robert Greenstein and Aviva Aron-Dine
Each year, the Tax Foundation releases a report projecting Tax
Freedom Day, which it describes as the day when Americans
will finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax
bill for the year. Over the years, many pundits and policymakers
have misinterpreted the Tax Foundations report as reflecting
the tax burdens that the broad swath of middle-income families must
shoulder.

In fact, however, according to data from authoritative
sources such as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, middle-income
Americans pay significantly less in taxes as a share of their income
than the Tax Foundations report implies.

This analysis explores significant flaws in the
Tax Foundations report.

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